Daily Lessons from Life 21 June 2011 - Most S'poreans want to work past retirement age: survey

"Most S'poreans want to work past retirement age: survey - CNA 21 June 2011

SINGAPORE : Singaporean employees want to work past the retirement age and upgrade their skills, according to the latest Randstad Workmonitor survey released on Tuesday.

It found that 72 per cent of Singaporean employees would be happier working two years past the official retirement age without any additional financial benefits.

The survey also showed that 66 per cent of Singapore employees interviewed said their career now demands more education and training than ever before, while more than a third said they felt their current job was beyond their current abilities.

Interestingly, four out of ten people surveyed would prefer a position with more responsibility, even if there was no increase in salary.

The survey also indicated a high level of confidence among employees, with 61 per cent believing recruitment of good talent had been increasing since the financial crisis and 65 per cent believing their companies were in a good position to hire well-qualified staff.

The findings also indicated a four per cent rise in employee satisfaction to 61 per cent among Singapore employees since its last quarterly release.

However, 74 per cent felt that more people would leave to work abroad in the future.

Randstad regional director for Singapore and Malaysia, Karin Clarke, said this highlighted the priority for employers to focus on strong talent retention and attraction strategies.

The research surveyed 405 Singaporeans from May 2 to 13, as part of a global quarterly survey of 13,565 employees, which tracks employee confidence, mobility, job satisfaction and personal motivation."

There are Surveys and there are Surveys!

Lessons for me are:

1. why do Singapore workers, all Singaporeans?, want to work past retirement? Out of necessity or to keep active while healthy? If only the survey can provide some insights into these topics;

2. why would Singapore workers, again all Singaporeans?, need to work overseas? Is it because there is no job available in Singapore for Singaporeans as they are over-priced vs. the cheap foreign labour in Singapore?;

3. whether the workers want to upgrade or not is out of the hands of these workers really. If you do not have the skills required of the jobs on offer, you will need to upgrade. In fact, if you can correctly anticipate the skills required for the future job, you be ahead of the competition! Still, there must be enough well paying jobs for you to compete for. Given the reported current full employment situation in Singapore, with tons of low wage foreign workers, true blue Singaporean workers will have to fight harder to land a job, any job, regardless of how poorly it pays! Yes?